Page 44 of The Last Hunt
“We can be at Valley Starbase in thirty-four minutes at that speed,” CAL adds.
Maeve nods and sets the auto-nav. Aethon crosses his arms and leans back in his chair. The silence between them feels tense, but Maeve sets her teeth and crosses her legs, promising herself that she won’t be the one to break it.
“I’m detecting elevated levels of cortisol in both your bodies,” CAL says after a few minutes. “Is there a reason why you’re still feeling stressed? I can recommend several scientifically sound stress relief techniques.”
“God, CAL -” Aethon mutters. “Just leave it be.”
“We could all do a meditation together!” TAI suggests, her voice coaxing. “Or there are several other options available to organics that might be much more enjoyable -”
“TAI!” Maeve says sharply. She feels her face heat and she avoids looking at Aethon. “Just - stop.”
“But Maevey -”
“Stop,” Maeve demands, holding up a hand. “Just keep track of the support strut.”
Half an hour later, the tension in the ship is so thick that Maeve wishes she’d just let TAI and CAL ramble on about whatever they wanted. It’s a relief to see Valley Starbase up ahead, and Maeve sends a docking request to the station’s computer.
Valley Starbase orbits around Vitraxia - the planet swirling with red and orange clouds, the greenish gray continents hardly visible beneath. Valley is much different from Omega Starbase back near Brix-9. While Omega is well kept and has new amenities every year, Valley doesn’t look like it’s been updated - or even cleaned - in the last twenty years. It’s ugly - shaped in the old style like a cylinder with docking spikes sticking out all over it. It’s chrome and black, with orange-brown splatters - debris from Vitraxia’s atmosphere.
“They want us to dock at maintenance bay fourteen,” Aethon says, tapping a message on the dash. He stands and turns around, meeting Maeve’s eyes. “I’ll be the one to talk with the mechanics.”
“Fine,” Maeve mutters. Though she’s irritated with Aethon taking control of this situation, she really doesn’t want to let Quinlar Cho know she’s here. She can see the wisdom in Aethon being the one to interact with the station's mechanics.
Maeve accelerates the Archer into the maintenance bay, trying to ignore how the ill-kept bay sets off all of her internal alarm bells. There are piles of scrap off to one side, and cables hang from the ceiling beams like entrails of the station itself. A tech in a spacesuit waves them forward with two neon white batons, and Maeve lands the Archer gently where he’s indicating. A light at the end of the bay illuminates green as the force field re-engages behind the Archer and the bay returns to proper oxygen saturation.
An incoming hail lights up the viewscreen and Aethon glances back at her, his brows raised. Maeve rolls her eyes and hops down off her captain’s chair. “All yours. I’ll be in my quarters.”
Aethon nods, and as Maeve turns the corner into her room, she hears him answer the hail, his tone boisterous and charming. He’ll probably get along better with these techs than she ever would.
Maeve sits down on the end of her bed and rubs her hands over her face. The past week and a half has been one of the most confusing times of her life. The sooner they get the ship fixed and get a move on, the better. She’s glad the Archer can be fixed, but having her only mode of transportation in jeopardy makes her a bit more empathetic for Aethon and his loss of the Menace.
Aethon fills Maeve’s mind. She wishes she could speak to her parents right now. They’d loved each other, but in the end - it hadn’t saved them. Would they say it had been worth it anyway? Is love enough to sustain through inevitable heartbreak?
“Maevey-pie?”
TAI’s voice is quiet, coming just from one speaker near Maeve’s bed. She looks up and massages her aching shoulder.
“Yeah?”
“Are you alright, babe?”
Maeve bites her bottom lip and stands up, pacing across her room. She shoves her hands in the pockets of her leather jacket. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine to me,” TAI replies. “Do you want to talk to your girl TAI about it?”
Maeve shakes her head and sighs. She’s sure that TAI and probably CAL both know what happened between her and Aethon last night. Both AIs are calibrated to keep tabs on their captains, and they’re both integrated into the ship now, so even if they weren’t actively paying attention, they’re both programmed to always be paying some kind of attention.
“TAI,” Maeve starts slowly. How can she explain all of this to an AI? Does she even want to? Maeve’s emotions feel tangled up in her chest and she paces back across her room, thinking. “I guess -”
But then Aethon knocks on the doorframe and sticks his head in. “Sorry to interrupt, but the techs need us to shut down all of the Archer’s systems so that they can take a look at the problem. The AIs will be down too which I don’t like - but I don’t know how we can get around it outside of transferring them to our tabs.”
“Oh,” Maeve replies. She crosses her arms. “Are the techs coming on board?”
Aethon shakes his head. “No, but I’m going to go talk with them and make sure what they’re doing is up to code.”
“If an ex-con runs this station who the hell knows what sort of things they get up to here,” Maeve says.
He nods. “I don’t want them fucking with your ship, Bladesy.”